Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to the field of scheduled entertainment programming, and in particular, to a service that presents customized scheduled programming recommendations to users in real time.
Description of the Related Art
Media services offering real-time scheduled entertainment programs include businesses such as cable TV providers, radio broadcasters, satellite TV and radio providers, and Internet media providers. Typically such services also provide an electronic program guide (EPG) that lists a timetable of scheduled programs available to viewers on multiple channels. Most viewers have access to as many as several hundred channels that are tabulated or otherwise displayed in the EPG. Thus, perusing all of the programming choices listed in the EPG can be a tedious, inconvenient, and time-consuming task.
While a user, e.g., a TV viewer, a radio listener, or a smart phone user, is engaged in a particular program, the user may be unaware of other, more interesting programs that are being transmitted on unfamiliar channels. In some cases, the user may not have discovered a program that they might enjoy, simply because they are not aware that the program exists or they do not know where to locate the program in the EPG. A different problem is that a user might begin a program and, after several minutes, realize that they have already experienced that program, thus causing the user to lose interest and feel disappointed. However, if the user switches to a different channel, they will have missed the first several minutes of the program on the new channel. In short, with hundreds of channels, it is difficult for users keep abreast of what programs they might be missing.